snow storm

Friday, December 18, 2020: New York City is never without its charm, even in the dreadful silence and stillness of a global pandemic in the middle of a snowstorm. “Charm” is, of course, open to interpretation. Some define it by the city’s rich diversity and resilience, while others are secretly enamored of its chaotic energy, rats dragging pizza through subway stations, and the sound of car horns blaring at all hours of the night.

After a chaotic and deadly year, defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and a harrowing presidential election, New Yorkers are finding little pockets of joy in the small things, like the first big snowstorm of the winter season. Instead of escaping the cold with lobster ravioli at Carbone or indulging in a decadent cocktail at The Polo Bar, celebrities have, quite literally, bundled up and taken to the streets of the city and its surrounding counties to enjoy Mother Nature’s snowfall. Stars like Bella Hadid slipped on Versace boots and white trousers to make snow angels, and Lucy Hale wore the Amazon famous Orolay winter coat to experience the first big snow storm of the season.

During a “normal year,” a weekday snowstorm has the potential to put a New Yorker up in arms. But in 2020, the majority of us work from home in our nicest pajamas and slippers, staring out our 30th-story window, trying to remember what it felt like to commute to the office before we entered the “new normal.” When Broadway actors stopped performing, the Rockettes stopped dancing, and people were banned from kissing in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, we found comfort in the little things: fresh coffee from a pot instead of Starbucks on lunch break, the extra time to fold laundry on a weekday instead of the weekend, and the beautiful simplicity of freshly fallen snow.